


All That Glitters

by Natsumiya_Teirin



Category: Natsume Yuujinchou | Natsume's Book of Friends
Genre: M/M, Tengu, Yandere, Youkai
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-10-13
Updated: 2019-10-13
Packaged: 2020-12-14 14:14:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 478
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21017105
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Natsumiya_Teirin/pseuds/Natsumiya_Teirin
Summary: It starts with a lonely tengu and a boy made of moonlight.





	All That Glitters

It starts, as many of these incidents do, on a mountain. Reiko's descendant is there with a young fox kit and a pudgy calico cat. From high up in the trees, the tengu watches.

The child who smells of Reiko is moonlight personified- thin and pale and whispy, with silver hair and eyes like gleaming gemstones. And birds absolutely _love_ shiny things.

The tengu wants him- wants to snatch him away and spirit him to his nest, the most precious of all his treasures- the boy called Natsume. The fox is young and wouldn’t be able to harm him, and the fat pig-cat-thing doesn’t look like much, either, and yet, the tengu knows well that appearances are rarely what they seem.

So he waits, and he watches.

Natsume meets with another human who smells only faintly related to him- not a parent, not even a cousin- and enters a strange metal contraption the tengu is wholly unfamiliar with. With a leap and a flap of his powerful wings, the tengu follows in the air.

Natsume and his (very) distant relative exit the strange metal beast, but do not part ways as they had before. The cat follows behind but the fox is nowhere to be found.

There are many more humans here, and Natsume's spiritual energy is strong enough to obscure potential exorcists.

The tengu folds his wings inwards and hides among the humans in plain sight.

Being mortal, Natsume is like a shooting star- bright and beautiful, but fleeting, and upon impact, doomed to lose his light. So, the tengu decides, he'll take him away, to the skies where he can't descend- can't ever lose his light. But he must do it quickly, before his newfound treasure slips completely out of his reach.

So he follows them, close enough for any spiritually-inclined humans to think he was actually with Natsume and his relative, but far away that Natsume himself wouldn’t see him. Hopefully.

Eventually, the two of them enter an ordinary house- their human nest, going by the scents. The tengu doesn't follow them inside- it would be too risky. Even though the house is somehow warded against harmful youkai and he has no harmful intentions whatsoever, it is always better to be careful.

So he perches atop the roof and waits. He hears Natsume's voice, firm and commanding, and yet also somehow gentle, coming from directly below him. The tengu holds his breath and conceals himself in the branches of a nearby tree.

And again, he waits.

And waits some more, just to be safe.

The fat cat slips out of the window the tengu was just above earlier, not even bothering to take a cautionary sniff of his surroundings. The tengu waits until he is out of his sight and grins at his luck.

Surely, this is proof Natsume is meant to be with him.


End file.
